


Quarantine

by Calico



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-25
Updated: 2011-02-25
Packaged: 2017-10-15 23:04:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/165764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calico/pseuds/Calico





	Quarantine

Under other circumstances, Bones would have enjoyed having Jim stretched out on a starched bunk, eyes only for him.

Those other circumstances, Jim wouldn't be complaining so damn much.

"This is completely unfair," Jim said, for probably the fifteenth time. "I'm the Captain!"

Bones double-checked the blood scanner; still normal. "Yeah, so it's extra-important that you're quarantined after exposure to microbes on an alien planet," he said, refining the parameters he was worried about and re-running the test. "I mean, how would we cope if some sickness took you out of action? We could go weeks without any joy riding at all!"

"I don't feel sick," Jim said. "Anyway, there were loads of us down there. Why aren't you confining anyone _else_ to a stupid sick room?" He started listing the respective crewmen on his fingers.

Bones cut him off. "Loads of us didn't smooch the local royalty."

Jim drew himself up indignantly on his sterile bed. "It was for _diplomacy_ ," he said, and then glared as Bones laughed.

"Right! Like that diplomacy you used to practice on campus, where you hid under beds or in laundry chutes on a regular basis?"

"No," Jim said witheringly. "A different sort of diplomacy."

"What, one that works?" Bones asked, and forestalled Jim's reply by shoving a thermometer back in his mouth. Jim glared with renewed intensity, but didn't attempt to speak around the glass barrel. His temperature was still normal, and Bones was genuinely relieved - the locals had some bug that made them run hotter than normal, hotter than a human metabolism could cope with.

"I don't see why I can't be quarantined in my quarters," Jim said, immediately the thermometer was removed. He was eyeing the door speculatively. "I could promise to come back if I felt even the slightest bit hot," he said, and Bones steeled himself, because that was Jim's persuasive voice, and it had a bad habit of doing something twisty to his insides.

"Nothing doing. You're staying put. I'm sorry," he said, without a trace of apology, because it was about damn time that Jim learned to keep it in his pants, and eight hours of solitude might go some way towards kick-starting that lesson, "but saliva is the commonest vector in the book, and I'm not taking any chances. You're in under observation until we know you're not feverish."

"But I'm _not_ feverish. Am I?" Jim demanded. "I feel fine!"

Bones shrugged. "You're not feverish _yet_. There's no saying you won't be, though. Them's the rules," he added, laying it on thick. To be honest, if Jim _had_ caught anything off Princess Scalypants then it should've shown up by now. But Bones was taking great pleasure in doing it by the book, this once. He looked straight at Jim as he said firmly, "You're not leaving here 'til morning."

"But you are," Jim said, his eyes narrow as Bones checked the blood scanner one last time, noted down the reading, then peeled off his gloves and chucked them in the trash. "It's not fair. You could at least sit with me, talk me through it--"

"I'll be back at 0600," Bones said, and admitted to himself that he was probably enjoying this a little _too_ much. He put on his most ludicrously soothing voice. "You get some rest."

"Don't go," Jim said quickly, swinging his feet off the bunk. "C'mon," he said, landing suddenly in Bones's space, all grabby hands and beseeching eyes, "please, Bones, buddy - just for a bit?"

"Hey," Bones started, laughing, "no, get back in--"

Jim's grabby hands landed in his hair and held him still, as Jim surged forwards and kissed him hard on the lips.

Bones froze, time convulsing to a halt, as Jim worked his mouth open; parts of him rearing hot and ready at the touch, the rest of him too shocked to respond. Jim wasn't-- He hadn't just-- He couldn't be--

"Mm," Jim said, licking into his mouth, dirty and slick and _deliberate_. "Mm--"

Bones shuddered out a breath, his hands coming up to hold Jim's shoulders; and then Jim was pulling back, letting go, and the grin on his face was horribly triumphant.

"Ha," Jim said, which kind of hammered the point home. He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. "Now you _have_ to stay with me."

Bones refused to talk to him for the entire eight hours.


End file.
